Ben 10: Hero and Predator

Chapter 12: Truth

The small alien fled somewhere as Ripjaws encountered an armed man in a suit.

"Ahh! Who are you?! Who am I!? Who are you?!" The two exclaimed in sync.

And without warning, the armed man blasted Ripjaws, sending him behind a counter.

"Looks like today is my lucky day. Two aliens for a price for one." The man grinned.

Suddenly, Buglizard jumped off the ceiling and landed behind the stranger, catching the man by surprise. He quickly aimed his blaster at the beast, but Buglizard's tail swiped him down by the leg, resulting the stranger to drop the weapon.

The beast quickly crushed the weapon into pieces and then wrapped the stranger's leg with his tail and tossed him to a nearby support pillar. The stranger fell unconscious, and Buglizard went to Ripjaws to check his condition. The fish alien grabbed a nearby water jug that filled with water and poured himself with it.

Ripjaws sighed in satisfaction. "You gotta love room service, am I right?"

Buglizard rolled his eyes and searched for the wild alien with his keen sense of smelling. Suddenly, the wanted alien made his appearance in front of Buglizard. It taunted him, but Buglizard simply breathed out his fog around him.

The alien approached the yellow fog in curiosity before Ripjaws trapped it down with an iron safe. Then, Ripjaws timed out and went back into Ben. Hearing a groan from the armed stranger, Ben went back to the entrance and met Max and Gwen while Buglizard made his escape on the other way around.

"Ben, are you alright?" Max asked.

"Barely." Ben groaned. "Some nut-job in there nearly roasted me."

"Where's Y/n?" Gwen gazed around.

"Somewhere else. He hasn't time out yet." Ben answered.

The Tennysons then looked to the armed man who already regained his consciousness.

"Max?" The man recalled.

"Phil." Max smiled back.

The two then embraced each other in a friendly hug. Then, from the entrance, Y/n joined the group and found Max hugging with the man.

"What did I miss?" Y/n asked.

"You know this guy, grandpa?" Ben asked.

"You can say that. We used to be partners." The man said.

From the introduction, the kids realized that the man is Phil that Max told them about.

Outside, Phil stood next to his sport car while chatting with the group after putting the captured alien in the trunk.

"Yeah, she's not much to look at." Phil said, implying his vehicle. "But it's better than that old rust bucket of an Rv you use to drive."

"So, how are you?" Max asked.

"Pretty good, considering I just bagged a Havok Beast. Seems like old times."

"You bagged it?! As if! It was Rip-"

Y/n quickly stomped Ben's foot to shut him up, resulting the Omnitrix wielder to jump around in pain.

"Havok Beast, huh?" Max recalled. "I haven't seen one of those since the one we caught terrorizing Denver years ago."

Phil shut his car's trunk. "Yeah, well, good thing I was around. You know, once a Plumber, always a Plumber."

Y/n's hair shuddered, indicating that he sensed a bad omen from Phil. In fact, he felt that Phil is lying being a Plumber.